The Muna–Buton languages are a group of languages spoken on the islands of Muna and Buton off the coast of South East Sulawesi province, Indonesia. They belong to the Celebic subgroup of the Austronesian family.Mead, David. (2003). "Evidence for a Celebic supergroup." In Lynch, John (ed.). Issues in Austronesian historical phonology, pp. 115-141. Canberra: Australian National University. (Pacific Linguistics 550)
Internal classification The Ethnologue classifies the Muna–Buton languages as follows, based on van den Berg (2003) and Donohue (2004):Mark Donohue. (2004). "The pretenders to the Muna-Buton group". In John Bowden and Nikolaus Himmelmann (eds.), Papers in Austronesian subgrouping and dialectology, 21-35. Canberra: Australian National University.
Nuclear Muna–Buton Buton East Buton: Lasalimu, Kumbewaha West Buton: Cia-Cia Munan Busoa Munic Kaimbulawa Western Munic: Liabuku, Muna (Wuna), Pancana, Kioko Tukangbesi–Bonerate: Tukang Besi, Bonerate In earlier classifications, Wolio, spoken in the city of Baubau (seat of the court of the former Sultanate of Buton) and its immediate surroundings, and Laiyolo, spoken in the southern part of Selayar Island, were also included in the Muna–Buton group, but Donohue (2004) has shown that they form a distinct subgroup of their own, Wotu–Wolio, which also includes Wotu, spoken at the northern shore of the Bone Gulf.
Reconstruction
Proto-Muna–Buton has been reconstructed by van den Berg (2003).
Phonology VowelsFrontCentralBackClose *i *uMid *e *oOpen *a
Consonants Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal Plosive voiceless plain *p *t *k *q prenasalized *mp *nt *ŋk voiced plain/implosive *ɓ *ɗ *g prenasalized *mb *nd *ŋg Fricative voiceless plain *s *h prenasalized *ns voiced *R Nasal *m *n *ŋ Trill *r Lateral *l Approximant *w *y Vocabulary Van den Berg proposes around 30 lexical innovations for Proto-Muna–Buton, e.g., 'cat', 'throw away', 'fish', 'eel', 'head', 'split open (fruit)', 'under'.
References
External links "Muna-Buton" at Ethnologue (23rd ed, 2020).